Uncharted
Uncharted
Starring Tom Holland, MarkWahlberg, Antonio Banderas, Sophia Ali
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
Starring Tom Holland, MarkWahlberg, Antonio Banderas, Sophia Ali
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
Films based off video games has, to put it nicely, never really worked out well. Something always gets lost in the translation between playing your favorite video game and watching someone else act it out on screen, and more than likely it's missing that personal element that makes playing video games so much fun. Instead of sitting back and watching things happen, you have an active hand in making them happen, so when it's set to the big screen and you have no control (or controller) in it, it's not as effective. "Uncharted" is a massively popular, widely praised video game franchise that caused many (myself included) to purchase a Playstation 4 (or 5, if you're lucky) so you can play as the explorer Nathan Drake as he traverses the world in search of hidden treasures and adventures with his buddy Sully Sullivan. There was a literal wealth of story that could've been compiled to make "Uncharted" the movie the best video game movie out there, but instead it gets bogged down by every cliche known in the book with thin writing, but at least the cast is aptly able to perform to their stereotypical duties.
Nathan Drake (Tiernan Jones) grew up in an orphanage with his brother Sam (Rudy Pankow), and they both have a love and knowledge of history and spend their time breaking into museums, and on one such occasion they plan to steal the first map made after the Magellan expedition, but they're caught, and Sam flees after promising one day to return. Years later, a now grown-up Nathan (Tom Holland) is working as a bartender and grifting unsuspecting customers. One night he meets Sully Sullivan, who worked with Nathan's brother Sam, and who needs Nathan's help to find Sam, who went missing while they were searching for Magellan's treasure. Their adventure causes them to run afoul of Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), who is a ruthless treasure hunter that's also seeking Magellan's gold, along with his mercenary Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle). After retrieving one of the two keys, Nathan and Sully head to Spain where they meet Sully's contact Chloe (Sophia Ali), who has the second key, and they embark on the search to find Magellan's gold, as well as hopefully finding out what happened to Sam.
Despite the games offering this vast, wide worldview with loads of levels and challenges to explore, "Uncharted" the movie settles for being a cheaper version of "Indiana Jones," "National Treasure," and "Ocean's Eleven" that feels almost entirely soulless and bland. There's no new themes that the movie tries to take, and instead settles for the safe mediocrity that most action/adventure films snuggle safely in. Mismatched people come together to find a treasure, but first they have to find the keys to find the treasure, then the map to the treasure, then the eventual treasure itself - it's something that's been done time and again, and will unfortunately leave "Uncharted" in the middle-of-the-road memory that won't be thought of months or years down the line.
To follow the status quo, the film takes place in different continents just long enough to find the next missing piece before moving onto the next lavish setting, without spending too much time in one place to fully appreciate it. It's sad, because some of the set designs (and CGI) look rather exquisite and intricate, but we don't get enough time in one place to fully appreciate them. The tombs in Barcelona are very vast and visually pleasing, but again it just serves as a waypoint to the next save point (if you're going with game jargon).
When it was announced Tom Holland was going to be playing Nathan Drake, a lot of people were puzzled by the choice, since Drake in the video games is a much older man (in one of its many iterations before this one was chosen, Mark Wahlberg himself was in talks to play Drake), but "Uncharted" is supposed to serve as a prequel of sorts to the games, so a younger Nathan made more sense. Holland is a great choice for the role due to his natural charisma, action prowess, and comedic timing, but he also limits himself to this type of movie and could easily be typecast as such. If you close your eyes and someone plays dialogue that Holland has, it'd be almost impossible to pick if it's from "Uncharted" or his many "Spider-Man" films - he plays both essentially the same way with the same vocal cadence and youthful zeal, so it's almost impossible to take Tom Holland away from Peter Parker. There were even moments in this film where I was waiting for him to shoot some webs out of his hands to get out of certain situations (granted, his Spider-Man can't produce webs from his body, but still). Thankfully, he manages to still give a great performance and do Nathan Drake enough justice to make him enjoyable to watch.
Mark Wahlberg, on the other hand, plays Sully differently than the video games. Here, Sully is a bitter man who doesn't trust anyone (the theme of "trust no one" is shoved down our throats so much if you played a drinking game when someone mentioned that they don't trust someone, you'd be dead from alcohol poisoning before the end) and who seems to be double-crossing Nathan and withholding truths from him, unlike his video game counterpart where he serves almost as Nathan's older brother. Still, Wahlberg pulls out his own brand of charm that makes him as endearing as Holland's Drake, even if it's a bit more maddening. Antonio Banderas and Tati Gabrielle don't really get a lot more to do with their roles rather than being the generic bad guys, and Sophia Ali steals the show as the street-smart Chloe, who, along with Sully, really doesn't trust anyone (in case you didn't know with all the times she mentions it).
The action is intense and wild, especially the fight on the airplane taking place thousands of miles in the air (for someone who's afraid of heights, even though it's obviously CGI work, it still was very unnerving in a good way), but if you've seen the trailer then you've seen mostly all the big action set pieces that the film has to offer. Whether Nathan is swinging from chandeliers or dangling unconscious from cargo boxes dangling out of aforementioned airplane or fighting on flying ancient ships, the action really makes the film exciting and fun, even if it's wholly predictable.
Abandoning the joy and excitement of playing the video games it's based off of, "Uncharted" serves as another predictable, generic action/adventure film that's got some fun action sequences and decent performances, but ends up too middle-of-the-road to be memorable.
The Score: B-
Nathan Drake (Tiernan Jones) grew up in an orphanage with his brother Sam (Rudy Pankow), and they both have a love and knowledge of history and spend their time breaking into museums, and on one such occasion they plan to steal the first map made after the Magellan expedition, but they're caught, and Sam flees after promising one day to return. Years later, a now grown-up Nathan (Tom Holland) is working as a bartender and grifting unsuspecting customers. One night he meets Sully Sullivan, who worked with Nathan's brother Sam, and who needs Nathan's help to find Sam, who went missing while they were searching for Magellan's treasure. Their adventure causes them to run afoul of Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), who is a ruthless treasure hunter that's also seeking Magellan's gold, along with his mercenary Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle). After retrieving one of the two keys, Nathan and Sully head to Spain where they meet Sully's contact Chloe (Sophia Ali), who has the second key, and they embark on the search to find Magellan's gold, as well as hopefully finding out what happened to Sam.
Despite the games offering this vast, wide worldview with loads of levels and challenges to explore, "Uncharted" the movie settles for being a cheaper version of "Indiana Jones," "National Treasure," and "Ocean's Eleven" that feels almost entirely soulless and bland. There's no new themes that the movie tries to take, and instead settles for the safe mediocrity that most action/adventure films snuggle safely in. Mismatched people come together to find a treasure, but first they have to find the keys to find the treasure, then the map to the treasure, then the eventual treasure itself - it's something that's been done time and again, and will unfortunately leave "Uncharted" in the middle-of-the-road memory that won't be thought of months or years down the line.
To follow the status quo, the film takes place in different continents just long enough to find the next missing piece before moving onto the next lavish setting, without spending too much time in one place to fully appreciate it. It's sad, because some of the set designs (and CGI) look rather exquisite and intricate, but we don't get enough time in one place to fully appreciate them. The tombs in Barcelona are very vast and visually pleasing, but again it just serves as a waypoint to the next save point (if you're going with game jargon).
When it was announced Tom Holland was going to be playing Nathan Drake, a lot of people were puzzled by the choice, since Drake in the video games is a much older man (in one of its many iterations before this one was chosen, Mark Wahlberg himself was in talks to play Drake), but "Uncharted" is supposed to serve as a prequel of sorts to the games, so a younger Nathan made more sense. Holland is a great choice for the role due to his natural charisma, action prowess, and comedic timing, but he also limits himself to this type of movie and could easily be typecast as such. If you close your eyes and someone plays dialogue that Holland has, it'd be almost impossible to pick if it's from "Uncharted" or his many "Spider-Man" films - he plays both essentially the same way with the same vocal cadence and youthful zeal, so it's almost impossible to take Tom Holland away from Peter Parker. There were even moments in this film where I was waiting for him to shoot some webs out of his hands to get out of certain situations (granted, his Spider-Man can't produce webs from his body, but still). Thankfully, he manages to still give a great performance and do Nathan Drake enough justice to make him enjoyable to watch.
Mark Wahlberg, on the other hand, plays Sully differently than the video games. Here, Sully is a bitter man who doesn't trust anyone (the theme of "trust no one" is shoved down our throats so much if you played a drinking game when someone mentioned that they don't trust someone, you'd be dead from alcohol poisoning before the end) and who seems to be double-crossing Nathan and withholding truths from him, unlike his video game counterpart where he serves almost as Nathan's older brother. Still, Wahlberg pulls out his own brand of charm that makes him as endearing as Holland's Drake, even if it's a bit more maddening. Antonio Banderas and Tati Gabrielle don't really get a lot more to do with their roles rather than being the generic bad guys, and Sophia Ali steals the show as the street-smart Chloe, who, along with Sully, really doesn't trust anyone (in case you didn't know with all the times she mentions it).
The action is intense and wild, especially the fight on the airplane taking place thousands of miles in the air (for someone who's afraid of heights, even though it's obviously CGI work, it still was very unnerving in a good way), but if you've seen the trailer then you've seen mostly all the big action set pieces that the film has to offer. Whether Nathan is swinging from chandeliers or dangling unconscious from cargo boxes dangling out of aforementioned airplane or fighting on flying ancient ships, the action really makes the film exciting and fun, even if it's wholly predictable.
Abandoning the joy and excitement of playing the video games it's based off of, "Uncharted" serves as another predictable, generic action/adventure film that's got some fun action sequences and decent performances, but ends up too middle-of-the-road to be memorable.
The Score: B-
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